10 Gallon Tank Midna's Money Drain Betta Tank

figured I should update this thread and introduce my new boy. i'm thinking about turning this into a thread for all my tanks but it's kinda long... maybe I should just make a new thread? it might be less intimidating.

this is marshmallow, a halfmoon white opal male betta from the same petco I got sidon and zora. didn't go for a zelda-themed name this time rip. I went for a cute food name like my cat, cupcake. he's basically her betta. she loves him unfortunately his pristine flowing fins did not last long in my tank.

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Pretty boy!! Looks like our Percy

 

Wow, he’s quite the handsome man! I love the name, too.

 

Pretty fish and a good name! What's up with the finnage? That just from swimming around with plants and stuff?

 

Pretty fish and a good name! What's up with the finnage? That just from swimming around with plants and stuff?

i'm not 100% sure. I thought it might be from the driftwood in his tank, which I filed down before I put in the tank, and then filed down some more after his tail got shredded. he really loves wiggling through the plants so it might be the plants, but the only stiff plant is the anubias.

no more damage was done for about a week, his tail was healing nicely, but then I noticed new damage when I woke up yesterday there's even a little chunk missing from his analfin. he only does it at night. i'm thinking it could possibly be from the little useless knobs on the heater's suction cups that stick out, so i'm going to take them out today and see what I can do.

 

I am pretty sad! and I want to ramble lol. so here I go. (I really need to make a new thread about all my tanks)

I think edgar the ghost shrimp has died. by died I mean he's vanished. can't find him anywhere. i'm always tearing the tank apart to find him so I can make sure he gets some food but I haven't seen him in several days. he usually shows up, but i've looked everywhere! I even looked around the tank to see if he got out and dried up somewhere. of course, I have about a thousand cords behind my tanks, so it's a bit hard. no shrimpy carcass that I could see. maybe sidon finally ate him. I feel like sidon would at least leave the head though. plus I didn't notice him bloated or anything. the only other thing is that I sucked him up during a water change. gah! I don't think my gravel vacuum has a hole large enough to fit that shrimp though.

I also managed to kill one of my horned nerite snails, limoncello I switched heaters between two tanks and he was on one of the heaters I took out. he's so small that I didn't notice him. I left the heater in a dry bucket for several hours before adding it to the other tank... when I finally got around to putting it in, he fell off the heater. I put him back in the water but he was already dead. took him out the following day. wow. such a tiny snail, such powerful stink. rip limoncello. (this means that I threw out a nerite several weeks ago that I thought was dead because he didn't move for like, a week... but he didn't smell and wasn't falling out of his shell. oh man, The Guilt.)

anyway, rip edgar. I had him for at least 5 or 6 months. he had such personality for an invert. I loved him.








^ his face the last time I tore the tank apart looking for him. he popped up on the crypt like "what is it, crazy lady? food?"


some good?ish news: I got a baby amano shrimp a little over a week ago. his name is miyamoto. he's about the size of an adult cherry shrimp. he is adorable. I plopped him in sidon's tank and he's been hiding in the sponge filter ever since. or, to be clear, he's been hiding in the ridges of the sponges. it's awful. I can't see him. I can't feed him. if I move the filter, he just crawls to the other side of the sponge. plus the darn airline tubing always comes off and sidon is at my hand trying to eat what i'm trying to feed miyamoto. I feel like he's going to starve to death. if he leaves the filter, I feel like sidon will eat him. does anyone else stress out about their shrimp like I do???? god. I was trying to feed him today and he actually left the filter and hid behind/beneath the driftwood. I feel like i've done a terrible thing. maybe he'll somehow survive to adulthood and then he'll be as big (bigger, honestly) as sidon and can just punch sidon if he bothers him.

I also couldn't resist buying more ghost shrimp a week ago... I put them in quarantine because they were in a tank full of other ghosts, some with nasty horsehair worms, and crayfish (including dead crays). I call them the ghoul boys, shane and ryan, from buzzfeed unsolved. once they're done in quarantine (i'm sure they're fine tbh) I want them in my desktop tank because I love shrimps and I want to watch them. always. I hope marshmallow doesn't eat them. shrimpkeeping is hard work. can you believe I want to try cherry shrimp someday? lolololol

 

Ya know, EAP, the author, his birthday was on Saturday. Would not surprise me if you find that shrimp sitting on the head of your bed, saying "Nevermore!". Okay, maybe not. But just as a precaution if you hear any tapping, do. not. open. the window.
Sorry to hear of your travails with the inverts, I've lost a few Nerites myself. Just poof! Gone. It's made me wonder if they're not some interdimensional critters who visit and then teleport back home after gathering data on us. Space snail invasion is coming, yo.
Thanks for the update!

 

Ya know, EAP, the author, his birthday was on Saturday. Would not surprise me if you find that shrimp sitting on the head of your bed, saying "Nevermore!". Okay, maybe not. But just as a precaution if you hear any tapping, do. not. open. the window.
Sorry to hear of your travails with the inverts, I've lost a few Nerites myself. Just poof! Gone. It's made me wonder if they're not some interdimensional critters who visit and then teleport back home after gathering data on us. Space snail invasion is coming, yo.
Thanks for the update!

honestly, I would welcome the ghost of edgar on my bedpost. I miss him lol

another sad day... I decided to take my ghosts out of quarantine and transfer them to marshmallow's tank last night. I noticed shane lost one of his pincer forelegs in the process, probably from netting him. the poor guy it was acting strange since I got him -- he'd always lift his leg and twitch it, it looked like he was waving or scratching his eyeball lol. probably nerve damage when he was netted at the pet store or whatever.

well, shane didn't survive the night in marshmallow's tank. marshmallow nipped most his antennae off and chased him a bit, but for the most part it looked like he was leaving him alone. when I went to bed shane was hiding behind the heater. when I woke up he was dead. surprisingly marshmallow didn't try to eat him. rip shane. ryan's still in there; i'm considering moving him to sidon's tank because there's more room to hide and stuff. I give up on shrimp until maybe when I get a baby betta. it's just a death sentence when I put them with bettas lol. at least a baby might tolerate them if they grow up with them. we shall see.

some photos of shane and ryan. i've been messing with my phone camera's pro mode trying to make my photos a bit better. I wish there was a macro setting.











in other news, I bought this tank for 30 bucks.




i'll be putting marshmallow in there to give him a bit more swimming room. ohko stone probably wasn't my greatest idea when it comes to long-finned bettas (especially when marshmallow looks like shredded cheese), but i've been wanting it in one of my tanks for ages. i've gotta figure out how to "scape" it though. marshmallow's old tank will be home to a baby betta and maybe some cherry shrimp if I get the guts to try them. let's see if I can keep up with 4 planted nano tanks.

 

I know you can't see me but I'm waving my arm at Shane like there's a mosquito buzzing my head. RIP little ghost man!

Good luck with the new tank, does it have a lid?

 

Hey Midna, any updates on this tank and/or your others?

 

Hey Midna, any updates on this tank and/or your others?

i've been so lazy hehe I will take some pics tomorrow after a water change!! all my fish and shrimp are doing great.

 

i've been so lazy hehe I will take some pics tomorrow after a water change!! all my fish and shrimp are doing great.

Can’t wait! I love sidon’s tank!

 

Can’t wait! I love sidon’s tank!

Same here, she was my inspiration to get 10 gallon tanks for my Bettas.

 

aww thanks guys!!! sidon's tank looks kind of different now. it's crazy the different stages a tank goes through! i'm always adding, moving, and taking away plants. I got rid of some plants that weren't doing well in his tank today -- hygrophila corymbosa, brazilian pennywort and creeping charlie -- so it's a little bare. i'm going to replace the hygro with an amazon sword.

couldn't get pics today because the water changes made the tanks messy, plus I didn't finish til nearly 11pm. I'll try for tomorrow or friday. i'm hopefully selling all my floating water sprite by friday because they're getting too big for my tanks.

 

guess who I found today. apparently he'd been hiding in my hob for months. I can't remember exactly when he went missing, but it's been A While. I took out my big double sponge filter where he used to hide over a month ago (he disappeared before then) so I guess he climbed into my hob and set up camp. UNLESS he was somehow in the tank all along and just suddenly appeared when I decided to clean out my hob (it was super nasty). I was wondering why I kept finding shrimp molts when I thought sidon ate all of the shrimp.




I got him out of my tank as fast as I could.... which was 20 minutes. he is impossible to see in a tank full of black sand. he camoflauges like a boss. I ended up ripping up a whole corner of crypts to get to him better. sidon helped me search, he loves to chase miyamoto.




now miyamoto the black amano shrimp is enjoying his new tank with my remaining cherry shrimp. he is soooo much happier there lol. poor thing. i've since learned never to put another shrimp in sidon's tank after they all vanished. i'm surprised he's still alive just from eating all the nasty biofilm and sludge in such a small space.




speaking of vanishing, it looks like my two larger nerite snails have skipped town. the tiger used to get on the lid on the inside, and I found my zebra on top of the lid a couple weeks ago and put him back in the tank. the tiger was missing for over a week until I finally found her behind the tank today (where I had already checked several times). no idea where the zebra is. i'm pretty sure the tiger's dead, but I put her in some water just to make sure since it doesn't smell and her trapdoor is tightly closed up. stupid snails! i've had them for nearly a year now and they've never escaped.

I know I said i'd take pics of my tanks but i'm still working on them. hopefully I can take some tomorrow! I have one more tank that needs a trim and water change. in the meanwhile I'll post some recent pics of my critters

someday I'll make a new thread lol

 

sidon ran into the floating mirror again and scraped his head :') idiot




sanguine, a shrimp I picked up from my lfs that I think was a blood mary. she was a very deep red. recently died due to molting problems rip






mama!!!! I had two berried mamas but one lost her eggs now i'm rooting for this one to give birth








they're literally falling out of her haha




zora being cheeky with me




marshmallow giving me the side eye. pic got corrupted for some reason, too lazy to fix




oops another shrimp. I love my shrimp tank can u tell

 

uploading photos on fishlore is a REAL PAIN lol this is why I don't post pics very often. as always you can follow/check my instagram stories to see more photos and videos of my tanks etc.

zora ate the zucchinI for my snails so he was stupid fat for a day




marshmallow's tail is different every day




caramello needs to pinch it off already






this was incredibly annoying for everyone except my cat who loves the taste of fishy water. marshmallow did not like being groomed (or maybe he did because he'd always wriggle around right under her tongue). now I have some mesh covering the gap so she doesn't drink out of the tank anymore




c.c. tinsley, my rainbow endler, ate way too much




leeroy jenkins and c.c. tinsley just chilling




leeroy jenkins, black bar endler




cupcake owns more fish than I do




can't ever get a decent photo of my pink endler, ricky goldsworth

 

Thanks for the updates, great stuff! I particularly like Leeroy Jenkins, there's one in every crowd. I had a Zebra Danio that I named "Crash", he was the Leeroy Jenkins in the tank. He was the sole survivor of the original group that I started with and became a loner. All of the other fish would be at one end of the tank and he'd be at the other end, just hovering over "his" rock. Then outta nowhere he'd go charging the length of the tank into the others, full on Leeroy.

Love seeing the pictures, don't know what problems you have with uploading but I'm a desktop using old so there's that.

Glad your shrimp is still with us, a filter seems like a good place to set up shop - the food comes right to ya.

 

Loved listening to my friend/nurse describe every detail! Awesomeness! Always loved your money pits. Then I don’t feel so bad about mine. My bettas all had to have their own 20 long. I found great homes for all but Jaax. My black orchid crowntail. He’s not going anywhere. Just bought him some new ping pong balls. I can’t wait to hear all about your tanks so hurry up!

 

Thanks for sharing! I love how much personality comes through. So happy you found the missing shrimp!

 

thank you guys! Pescado_Verde i'm glad you got the reference! i'm on mobile so it's kind of a hassle. small screen and all that.

Gypsy13 oh man, I am so sorry to hear about your fish. sad face. glad jaax is still with you! he is such a pretty boy. I haven't tried ping pong balls before. glad to hear from you! I will try to be more descriptive to give your friend a break

Jellibeen haha thank you, I kind of just type what comes to mind. my teachers must have thought I was a strange kid but I got all a's on my essays so whatever. I gotta admit that Pescado_Verde is an inspiration when it comes to tank diaries.

 

this is sidon's tank, the tank that started it all. i'm excited to see some new leaves on my amazon swords. I wanted to get one that was already showing lush submerged growth but it was cheaper this way.

I took out the double sponge filter and added an airstone instead for some circulation. he just has the top fin silentstream 10 hob now. it's a 10 gallon tank.

plant list: anubias frazeri, anubias nana, anubias nana golden, anubias nana petite, crypt wendtiI green, crypt lutea walkeri, rosette sword, amazon sword, java fern, corkscrew val, hygrophila angustifolia, water sprite, moss balls




this is zora's tank, my second tank. it's a standard 5 gallon tank with a corner sponge filter and azoo mignon 60 hob. he has dwarf sag, limnophila aromatica, java fern, rotala wallichii, rotala rotundifolia, green camboba, bacopa caroliniana, and broad-leaf water sprite




the two tanks in our butler's pantry




this is marshmallow's tank, which is technically my fourth tank. he was originally in my modified 5 gallon marineland portrait until I switched him to a modified rimless 5 gallon top fin retreat. I removed the built-in compartment and filter and replaced it with an azoo mignon 60 hob and an airstone. I think this is my favourite tank so far. there are a couple plants I'll probably switch out later.

his plants include pearlweed, anubias coffeefolia, anubias nana petite, buce green wavy, buce lamandau, java fern, hygrophila angustifolia, hygrophila polysperma sunset, crypt pink flamingo, broad-leaf water sprite, and rotala rotundifolia + a stem of rotala I got for free that I can't id lol




this is my shrimp and endler tank. I'll be moving the endlers to a new tank soon to give them some more space, so it'll end up being a shrimp-only tank. I currently have about 6 red cherry shrimp (started out with more, rip) and an amano shrimp. I'll be getting some more shrimp from a local breeder later this week. I modified the tank to take out the back compartment + filter and replaced it with a sponge filter and azoo mignon 60 hob. I also modded the sponge filter to include an airstone.

they have a huge portion of floating pearlweed that I'll need to trim and sell eventually, water wisteria, christmas moss, java moss, anubias nana petite, anubias nana golden, hydrocotyle tripartita japan, and moss balls.







my next tank will be a 7 gallon tank for my endlers (plus a few more) and a few african dwarf frogs. i've found a local breeder so i'm excited to have frogs again after mine died a year ago. the tank has been bought but I haven't set it up yet; I need to find the perfect piece of driftwood and visit the rock yard for some river rocks/pebbles. then I can add plants! i'm not sure how I'll ever get to leave home for more than a few days with all these tanks pfff

 

it's with a heavy heart that I inform you all about prince sidon's passing. he was battling some kind of illness that appeared pretty much overnight on 7/21 that I haven't been able to fully identify. please check out this thread for more details. if you have any idea what he could have suffered from, please let me know! I would love a definitive answer so I know how to properly treat if it happens again. and also how I should treat his tank, if at all.

i'll be going on vacation at the end of this month until early september. i'm going to leave his tank empty for at least a month except for the snails before I consider adding anything new. i'm done with domestic bettas; I expected sidon would live for much more than a year in my care but he only made it to one year and a month. such a shame. he was always really healthy despite being a pet store betta and a double tail. he was my first betta after learning how to properly take care of fish and I wanted to treat him like a prince. i'm still not sure why/how he got sick. :/

my other two bettas, king zora and marshmallow, are still doing good and don't appear to be infected. my shrimp tank is thriving but I had my first death in months today. my amano shrimp cleaned up, don't know where he discarded the head. unfortunately my endlers got sick just days before sidon, so i've been battling two different illnesses in two different tanks. I started out with 8 endlers and now i'm down to just 2. one of them I don't think will survive the night. they obviously haven't been responding well to medications (I think they have internal parasites, but now of course i'm not too sure).

not sure what I'll end up stocking sidon's tank with; 10 gallons is a lot for just one betta. I still want to try wild bettas, especially wild betta splendens. I only want a single male though, so I don't think a 10 gallon is a good idea. I thought about moving my endlers to the 10 gallon but I don't think I'll have any left. i'd also like to try out african dwarf frogs again but the person I was going to get them from is getting rid of all of theirs, so they'll probably be gone by the time I consider the 10 gallon safe.

anywho. swim in peace, my little prince

 

Sorry to hear about Sidon. Bettas are just not what the used to be. Having a betta for a year is lucky! Though my cousin keeps hers in bowls and they usually live for at least 3 years! I do wonder is keeping them in such warm tanks speeds up their metabolism and shortens their life spans. Anyways, SIP Sidon.

 

Sorry to hear about Sidon. Bettas are just not what the used to be. Having a betta for a year is lucky! Though my cousin keeps hers in bowls and they usually live for at least 3 years! I do wonder is keeping them in such warm tanks speeds up their metabolism and shortens their life spans. Anyways, SIP Sidon.

I was actually thinking that too. my mom had a veiltail in a vase with a peace lily that lived 5+ years. for some reason I think it was 8 years, but that seems like forever. the water temp had to have gotten down to 70 during the winter. that was like 15 years ago though, back when there were only veiltails on the market. thanks

 

Swim in Peace, sweet Sidon. He was a very beautiful fish that will be remembered for a lifetime. <3

I looove wild bettas, have you seen FooTheFlowerhorn on youtube? You should check him/her out. He/she has a 5 gallon (I think) with a betta imbellis I'm pretty sure, I can't quite remember. Anyways, he/she does cute little up close and relaxing videos of the little dude. Cool stuff.

 

Saw this video and thought of you!

 

Saw this video and thought of you!

hahaha nooooo I don't wanna breed them!!! these guys are tiny though. they look stupid in my 10 gallon tank lol. they've still got some growing to do. the male will get bigger, more colorful, and will get a longer tail.

this is the male, will try to get a better photo of him later. they arrived yesterday morning.

 

I like that! Good looking little fishes there.

 

Hey midna!! Just wondering if you have any tank updates love looking at your tanks

 

Yeah,, I want updates! WITH PICTURES!